Oscar Piastri Gives Verdict On Lewis Hamilton Crash In Las Vegas

Monday, 20 November 2023 at 10:00

Updated at Monday, 20 November 2023 at 14:29

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri reflected on the collision with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton during the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

After a few consecutive successful weekends, McLaren will want to forget the race at Las Vegas Strip Circuit as soon as possible.

Both McLaren F1 drivers starting from the back of the grid had a great start and moved up a couple of positions right after the start as they were able to navigate through the carnage in the first corner well.

However, the race ended for Lando Norris on lap 3 when he lost the rear of his car on a bump in turn 11 and crashed into the wall. From that point on, it was all on Oscar Piastri.

The Australian seemed to have a decent pace and was on his way to achieving some good points in P5, but then the collision with Lewis Hamilton came.

A faster Mercedes driver wanted to overtake Piastri into turn 14 on lap 16, but a weird misunderstanding resulted in the collision between the two drivers. The 22-year-old told the media:

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"It was kind of just an awkward one. Neither of us had really committed to the corner that much. Then we both committed at the last minute, and then I was trying to back out of it, but we just ended up meeting in the middle, and I had a puncture from that."

The collision resulted in a puncture for both drivers. Piastri went to the box that lap; luckily, the incident happened near the pit lane, so he did not lose too much time.

"I don't think it really hurt our race that much in all honesty. It would have been interesting to see if a one-stop could have worked from that point."

Multiple drivers Charles Leclerc (P2) and Esteban Ocon (P4) went for the one-stop strategy, and it turned out well for them, but it did not turn out so well for other drivers like Pierre Gasly (P11) or Alex Albon (P12). Piastri added:

"It's always hard to know, we could have been a sitting duck, like [Pierre] Gasly. A lot of things for a lot of people went wrong in that race and I was in the same boat."